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Todd Dills

A couple for the kids: Truck, stop! Truck, go!

On children’s musician, author and childhood development specialist Jim Gill‘s most recent CD / DVD, “Music Play for Folks of All Stripes,” an interactive tune called “Truck Stop” schools listeners in a fun way on the basics of the truck driver’s work. As with most of Gill’s tunes, adults are coached toward leading kids through imaginative play.

In this case, that means pretending to be trucks that go, that stop, drivers that drink coffee and eat salads and pancakes and, finally, sleep. It’s better described by the video below, where Gill and a jazz group do “Truck Stop” live with a group of parents and children.

It’s a fun listen. I haven’t tried it out with my daughter as yet, but the three-year-old’s really gotten into a couple of classic trucking-related children’s books we found at the library. Both are pretty great.

“The Trucker,” by Brenda and Mark Weatherby, is a classic tale of somewhat recent vintage of a boy’s dream come reality on the day he’s out with his father in his Peterbilt for an action-packed (weather, breakdown, delivery) day of hauling.

“Truck” is a more abstract adventure told in, mostly, pictures, following a cabover through its run delivering boxed tricycles.

Click on either of the cover images for Amazon’s info/order pages for these two, most definitely recommended for anyone with children in the 2-6 range or so.

Todd Dills

Todd Dills is Senior Editor of Overdrive magazine and writes from Nashville, Tenn. He frequently covers business, regulatory and lifestyle topics for the magazine and at OverdriveOnline.com. His work on the “CSA’s Data Trail” series in Overdrive about the federal CSA program was awarded the highest honor in trade journalism – the “Grand Neal” – by American Business Media at the 2014 Jesse H. Neal Awards. Dills’ Channel 19 blog covers a grab bag of on-highway hearsay, owner-operator news and driver views from the roadways the nation over. His work in trucking journalism builds on a background of news feature, fiction and other creative writing and editing. Find him here at the Channel 19 blog and via his Twitter feed, or send tips to tdills@randallreilly.com or via phone at 205-907-2481.